TREASURE CHEST

My dear and bellowed friends,  

I am deeply grateful for the messages of condolence and sympathy many of you have sent to me on the demise of my wife, Shahida, who passed away on Sunday, July 19th, 2020. Some even said that she was a pious person and was surely in good stead so I need not worry. I am thankful for that warmth. But what I am worrying about is not about Shahida’s welfare on the other side of existence. I am worrying about myself. Where do I stand in Allah subhana’s march past on youm al hisaab?  

PANCREATIC CANCER  

 Shahida was diagnosed with pancreatic cancer. This is a type of fast growing, aggressive cancer which shows no symptoms until much later. By the time acute pain and other problems emerge, and a scan is done, cancer has advanced to stage four, and had also spread to the liver and other organs. At that stage the cancer is un-treatable. After diagnosis, Doctors had given her three months to live. But she died in two. Before she died, it was a life of utmost horror. At a time she could sip only a few teaspoons-full of water or fruit juice. Bouts of pain were intense.  

 Canadian health authorities had installed in our bedroom a hospital bed operated by power, and had posted an almost full-time nurse. A day earlier, to calm her down,  she had been injected with a large dose of hydro-morphine. That did not work. On the last night a three-person medical team came to our house at about 10 pm and stayed for more than an hour. After examining the patient and detailed discussions they decided that doses of morphine need to be injected at half hour intervals for the duration of the night. The attending nurse was given instructions. So it was. Every time another dose was injected, she did not show any response.  

MUJHAY LAY CHALO  

 At an earlier stage, when she was able to say a few words she had said in a weak voice. “Mujhay lay chalo. Bohut der ho gayee.” On this early morning of Sunday July 19, all hope had gone, and there was nothing left except the prospect of more and more pain. Putting my mouth close to her ear, I mournfully said. “Ab der nahin ho gee. Dekho bibi, tumhain laynay farishtay aa gaya hain.” At the moment of my last word she exhaled her final weak breath. She died at home surrounded by me,  her two sons and their wives. This is the story of what happened on the surface. Below that, she was explaining to one of her favorite spiritual children why she was sick, and why this was necessary. I will leave it at that.  

WHERE ARE THE GREAT SAINTS?  

In the days just after our marriage she would speak about the great saints such as Ghous ul Azam, Data saheb, Hazrat Muinuddin Chishti and others and say these were people of the past. Such people do not exist now. My standard reply was “Yes they do, but you need to look for them.” The retort was “You go look for them. When you find one let me know.”   

THE MURSHED  

It happened suddenly. She used to attend a weekly dars meeting at the house of a lady friend, Fauzia. On a small table in the corner of the meeting room was a framed portrait of an elderly person. On one occasion, Shahida asked the hostess “Is that your dad?” She said

“No. That is my murshed.”  

“What is a murshed?”  

” A murshed is a teaacher.”  

“What does he teach?”  

“He teaches about love for Allah and His prophet.”  

“I too would like to meet him.”  

“That is impossible. He migrated during his youth to Medina and lives there. He is originally a Sindhi. He and all his family are Saudis now. He does not come here anymore. Long years ago, when he did come.  I became his mureed along with many others.”  

A week later the hostess telephoned Shahida. “Surprise! Our murshed has come. He is in the house of Mrs Zaka. I will speak to Mrs. Zaka and get an appointment so you can go and meet him.” An appointment was fixed. Day after tomorrow,  9 am. You will have fifteen minutes. It so happened that a few days before that Shahida’s mother had come from Karachi to meet us at Lahore. Mother and daughter reached Mrs.Zaka’s house at about 8.30 and waited along with many others. They were called at about 9 and went to his room to meet with the Murshad saheb. His name was Syed Muhammad Mazoor Hussain. The hostess again gave direction the time allotment was strictly 15 minutes. Many others were still in line.  

Hazrat saheb gave the two of them a warm welcome and asked them to sit down. The room was furnished with a carpet. There was no other furniture. Shahida’s mother sat down and Shahida remained standing.  

THE MEETING.  

This first meeting, which happened in the last days of 1979 was to have unimaginable consequences. Shahida said that, at this first meeting, she was moved by indescribable emotions. Hazrat saheb started to speak. She says she had an impression that he was explaining the intricacies of tassauuf, mysticism, but, flooded by tears, she heard nothing, understood nothing. This meeting which was scheduled strictly for 15 minutes, lasted for a bit more than one hour before Hazat saheb permitted them to leave.  

As they left the room Hazrat saheb said to his hostess “These are pious ladies. I would like to meet them whenever they come.  

THE AFTERMTH  

After Hazrat saheb’s death in 1989 his body was flown to Madina. Shahida and I accompanied his body on the same Saudi flight. His namaaz e janaza was prayed in haram Sharif. He was buried in Jannat al Baqi.   

SPRITUAL DEVELOPMENT   

From the day of that first meeting, whenever he was at Lahore, there were numerous occasions, Shahida would go to join him at fajar prayers done in congregation. It is impossible to describe the amazing progress she made in the way of spiritual development. Her entire personality was altered. She developed rapidly with utter devotion to her murshed,  to Allah subhana and to the last prophet (saw). Also, she took up an in-depth study of the Quran and hadith to the extent that, for many, she herself was sufficient authority.   

ZIKR  

After the passing away of Hazat shaheb another phase of her personality came up. She was not a chalifa of her murshed. It appears a woman cannot qualify for that honor. But, during his lifetime her murshed had given her the authority to teach and initiate every seeker who came to her into the mysteries of Naqshbadi zikr.  

She became a spiritual guide of numerous ladies with whom she interacted. This activity kept getting more and more widespread.  By the time of her death, the network of her loving admirers was in multiples of hundreds. What is more important is she helped and guided many to achieve higher spiritual attainments.  

QIBLA PIR SAEEN  

Khairpur in Sind is a relatively small town and had the status of independent statehood from the time of British raj. It was/is a predominantly Shia town. Our musrshed had a job there as teacher of English in a small private school. He developed a stir of love in his heart for sahaba of the prophet (saw). This was tabu in the shia state. He did not find any person in that town who could help and guide him. Even so, a pesh imam of a small sunni masjid said a holy man, on his way to haj, had once come and rested in this masjid for a couple of days. That person had come from the city of Rampur in Uttar Pardesh, India. He advised Syed Manzoor Hussain to try and find that person, who, perhaps, may be of help. And so, our murshed traveled to Rampur in search of that person. That search and its ultimate success, is a story which is beyond the scope of this narration except to say that the name of that person was Syed Mujtaba Khan. He was destined to became the murshed of our Hazrat saheb. He finally travelled to Khairpur with his beloved murid and now is buried there. In terms of Sindhi usage, we call him Qibla Peer Saeen. He is our “dada murshad.” 

……………………………………………….

Hazrat Syed Manzoor Hussain

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WORK OF CHARITY  

Before his death, Hazat saheb asked Shahida to help the poor people who sit with hope at the roza mubbarak of Qibla Pir Sain. This led ultimately to major charity work. In brief, she was a one person NGO. She was the channel for siphoning help to a large number of poor, deprived men and widows. She had compiled lists of such people to whom ration packets were delivered. These packets included flour, rice, ghee, tea packs, sugar. During special occasions such as Idd, new clothing and cash was also given. In the beginning recipients comprised the extremely poor people of Khairpur. This was next expanded to poor people in Lahore also. At the time of her passing away it was a list of 130 recipients in Khairpur and about the same number in Lahore. This work never ceased irrespective of whether she was in Lahore, US or Canada.   

FRIDAY LANGAR PROJECT  

There was also another project. During his lifetime Hazrat saheb had established a “langar” at the mazaar shariff of Qibla Peer Sain. This was food cooked in large bulk, one deg of biryani and another of some sweet dish, such as firni. Large cloth sheets (dastarkhan) were laid out in the prayer hall of the masjid for seating. All were invited and food was distributed generously just before zohar prayers. Many aged persons were eager for the project, and poor people came early enough and waited for the food. After Hazrat saheb died Shahida took up the langar project straight away. Since that time there has not been a single default in the Friday langar and there was always enough food.  

PURITY OF INTENT 

All charity work was done with purity of intention. There was never any thought of the slightest return of any kind. Indeed, the beneficiaries were so poor and helpless they could offer nothing in return. Only there was always the prayer may Allah subhanna accept our submission.  

ZOOM  

Towards the end of her life there were regular online zoom events. Even during the advanced phase of her illness, she remained seated before the camera blessing her dear “beytiaan.” These events started with a dars speech by her, followed with her leading a mehfil e zikr.  The words she used to initiate the mehfil e zikr were an exact replica of the words used by her murshed himself. At the end of each session her “pyari beytiaan” would come one by one on camera with each one talking about her deepest feelings of gratitude and with each in return receiving prayers and blessings. Even in personal meetings she would listen to problems of the ladies and advise them from her large reserve of common sense. She would then also advise them of which ayats of the Quran would be of benefit and which duas would be especially effective. Many of them found help in her duas for them. She touched the lives and hearts of each of them with intimacy and love. 

ALVIDA  

Since her death we have been receiving many accounts of how her spiritual children have been blessed with views of her. The largest number are accounts of dreams. They are others as well. Bhai Tariq is a Bangla Deshi who lives in Dacca. He is the senior most member of our group. He is a mureed who was in service of Harat saheb in Medina for many years, perhaps eight or ten. At that time, he was working in Jedda University in their computer department. After checking time of her death, he says his wife had a dream which started precisely at that moment of her passing away. Shahida came into their house in Dhaka, and stayed for a long time, consoling his wife about her many problems. 

Another lady had come driving to the masjid to attend salaat e janaza. Like many others, she had received prolonged training from Shahida in advanced tawassuf. She reports that as she entered the main hall where the body was lying, she was wonder struck with amazement. She saw the huge hall was full of spiritual beings, “buzrugan,” as she said, who had come to join the prayer. This was not a dream.  

EPILOGUE  

This is a very brief account of the eventful life of an amazing lady. She used to say, as I stated in the beginning, that saints don’t exist today. And during her own life she had joined the ranks of just those beings about whom she had said they don’t exist.